reflected a trend toward industrialism and the application of mass-production methods to weapons and to the technology of warfare in general. This trend began at least fifty years prior to World War I during the American Civil War of 1861–1865,[1] and continued through many smaller conflicts in which soldiers and strategists tested new weapons.World War I weapons included types standardised and improved over the preceding period, together with some newly developed types using innovative technology and a number of improvised weapons used in trench warfare. Military technology of the time included important innovations in machine guns, grenades, and artillery, along with essentially new weapons such as submarines, poison gas, warplanes and tanks.[2]
The earlier years of the First World War could be characterized as a clash of 20th-century technology with 19th-century military science creating ineffective battles with huge numbers of casualties on both sides. On land, the quick descent into trench warfare came as a surprise, and only in the final year of the war did the major armies make effective steps in revolutionizing matters of command and control and tactics to adapt to the modern battlefield and start to harness the myriad new technologies to effective military purposes. Tactical reorganizations (such as shifting the focus of command from the 100+ man company to the 10+ man squad) went hand-in-hand with armoured cars, the first submachine guns, and automatic rifles that a single individual soldier could carry and use.which led to trench warfare, was an important factor in the war, influenced its tactics, operations, and incorporated strategies that were used by the belligerents to break the stalemate at the front. World War I raised artillery to a new level of importance on the battlefield.
Black and white newspaper graph showing the size of Artillery by country
Military Field Artillery Numbers by Country in 1914
The First World War saw many developments in artillery warfare. Artillery could now fire the new high explosive shells, and throw them farther and at a higher rate of fire. Because of this, enemies in trenches were no longer always safe, and could constantly be fired upon. In some areas, artillery concentration was common, with several guns firing onto an area such as a line of trenches, each gun firing several rounds per minute for hours. Artillery barrages were also used to divert the enemy's attention from the site of attack before a battle. Paths behind the lines were also fired on so that enemy reinforcements could not safely reach the front lines.[1]
Mortars were revived by the Germans because of their ability to shoot at an angle above 45 degrees, and they, therefore, could theoretically (although not often) drop shells directly in an enemy's trench before exploding, for maximum damage.[2] Artillery shells were used for chemical weapon emission by the German troops in 1915, and the Allies followed their example after the Second Battle of Ypres.
The 2 inch medium trench mortar, also known as the 2-inch howitzer, and nicknamed the "toffee apple" or "plum pudding" mortar, was a British smooth bore muzzle loading (SBML) medium trench mortar in use in World War I from mid-1915 to mid-1917. The designation "2-inch" refers to the mortar barrel, into which only the 22-inch bomb shaft but not the bomb itself was inserted; the spherical bomb itself was actually 9 inches (230 mm) in diameter and weighed 42 lb (19 kg), hence this weapon is more comparable to a standard mortar of approximately 5-6 inch bore
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